TWO TAILED DOG

Bebok. Every child in Silesia knows it. Who is Bebok? Is it good or bad? Should we be afraid of it? Does it really exist? Does it visit you too? Is it one of us? What are you scared of? What is your Bebok?

When I was a child, I was frightened by the monsters hiding under my bed. Later, my mum used to scare me with another one hiding in the darkness of our basement. In my teenage years I felt I didn't belong. But the list of my fears was very long. There is always Bebok waiting for us or hiding within us.

The project tells a contemporary story about a group of friends. The young people from the small town of Wrzesnia played themselves in Bebok, therefore some of the photographs are typically documentary, although the audience can only guess which ones. Everything in this world seems fictionalized and real at the same time. Almost all the characters play the role of teenagers spending a carefree holiday together. Except for one. The title role. Bebok. Bebok is made of fear. The fear that is not fabricated, is truly real and can affect all of us.

What do we know about Bebok? Not much. It appears as a secretive observer of the pleasant events in the lives of the young people. It stands in the street and looks through the window of a flat where a party is taking place, it peeps at a kissing couple or secretly observes a group of friends spending time together in a summer house. For all intents and purposes, we do not know whether Bebok actually - physically - appears in the situations depicted. Perhaps even these events do not take place at all and only happen in its imagination?

Bebok could be the story of any of us. The project and the book are about taming anxiety and fear, as well as lack of belonging and seeking acceptance by the group. It is also about growing up and facing the unknown.

See to what extent Bebok is also your story. Don't be afraid. You will not be alone.

This project was made within the Kolekcja Wrzesińska residency.

BEBOK

Title: The Echo

Publisher: Press Club Polska

Photography: Maksymilian Rigamonti

Text: Magdalena Rigamonti

Design: Kasia Kubicka

Photography editor: Ewa Meissner

Scanning and preparation: Tomasz Kubaczyk

Text editors: Katarzyna Sielicka, Ireneusz Broda

Language: Polish, EnglishTranslation: Adam Robiński

Proofreading: Iwona Maciszewska

Binding: Poligrafia Bracia Szymańscy. Print: Chromapress

Size: 21 x 21 cm Pages: 70 (60 + 12)48 black and white photographs

Print run: 500 copies

ISBN: 978-83-65971-01-2

Title: BEBOK

Photography:  Karolina Jonderko

Photography editor: Ewa Meissner

Text: Karolina Jonderko, Rafał Sieradzki, Karol Szymkowiak

Design: Natalia Szczęch

Cover design: Rafał Sieradzki 

Publisher:  Września Collection

Language: Polish / English

Print run: 500 copies

ISBN: 978-83-937999-2-3

bifa 2020 bronze medal award  for book / documentary  (link)

THE ECHO

POY Photography Book of the Year 2018 (link)

The Photo Book of the Year 2018 in Grand Press Photo (link)

IPA 2018 Honorable Mention (link)

The New York Times review (link)

"Echo" is a photo book about places that  disappeared from contemporary maps of Volhynia (former territory of Poland)  in Ukraine and about searching for the traces of memory after what is no longer there. This is a look at the tragic events of The Volhynia Massacre from 75 years ago in the original approach of Maksymilian and Magdalena Rigamonti.